


Tails and Ears — A Naruto Fanfic

by Ambriosly



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, Major Character Injury, Major Original Character(s), Minor Character Death, Minor Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-08
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:40:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27822397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ambriosly/pseuds/Ambriosly
Summary: Naruto, a half-yokai born concealed from his past history, lives in the Dead Forest with his older sister, Shina. One fateful night forces him to abandon all he has known and integrate with the real world and discover things he never knew until now.
Kudos: 6





	Tails and Ears — A Naruto Fanfic

**Author's Note:**

> DISCLAIMER:  
> I do not own any of the original Naruto characters of the series. All Original characters or characters that were not explicitly mentioned in the anime belong to me. Thank you.

——

His bright azure eyes were trained on its prey, his honey-furred body dipped low to the ground, slowly inching closer. His ears twitched at all of the slightest sounds, the rushing of the water stream, the wind rustling the leaves on the tree and the twig that just snapped beneath his paw. The doe’s head snapped in his direction and the yellow fox dropped, halting all movement. The doe stared into the withering grass, legs ready to sprint at any moment. It was a stalemate for a second until the oblivious cottontail dipped its head back into one of the few emerald patches of grass. 

If foxes could smile, he would’ve been beaming, he started his stalk once again, careful not to step on any loose twigs. There were only a few meters between the predator and the prey, the fox shrunk lower, his tail-end raised in the air and—

“ _AHHG_ , I _hate_ this place!” A shrill voice shrieked into the forest. With that, the doe immediately dashed off, hopping over the small stream and further into the thicket. The fox ears flattened against his head, a small whine escaped. It had been the only deer he had seen in a while, game was getting scarce these days and it was probably the only chance he had. Which was absolutely ruined by a human’s voice.

_ A human’s voice. _

His mood instantaneously perked up at the thought. A human? Here in the Dead Forest?

He pointed his snout up into the air, the wind blowing the scent towards him. There were more than one, but only a few. He himself was a little ways from home but he lived here his entire life—and there was only one other time he smelled the scent of humans, yet his sister dissuaded him from exploring.  But Shina wasn't here to stop him this time. He decided, he would just *observe* whatever they were doing—and with that, he quickly dashed off into their direction. The humans were not too far off from where he was already. He peeked out from the bush to see three of them struggling to tread through the thicket. Two seemed fairly his age while the third was older, they all adorned some metal-plated headband of sorts, with the same symbol engraved in the center.

"Ugh, sensei—why did we have to go through the forest." The same voice from earlier whined, a kunai in hand as she quickly cut a stray branch. The older man merely raised his eye from the book, he didn’t respond immediately.

"It was the only option if we wanted to return to the village today." He responded, now putting away his novel. The girl only grumbled but didn't say much else.  Naruto looked over to the boy in the group, haven’t said a word—his face looked annoyed as he pushed past a branch. He followed them through the bushes as they continued to struggle walking in the forest. The humans in front of him did not look normal to him, they didn't seem to be travellers either—they did not carry much. Naruto wasn't even sure why Shina didn't like humans. Though she had seen many more of them when she was younger. Even with this, she didn't like leaving the area—only when it was a must.  He grimaced when he stepped on another twig. He looked over to see that none of them noticed or well, cared to notice as the pinkette still whined and the boy was still quiet. The older, on the other hand, stared right into the bush he hid in. He stopped moving, ears attentive for any sign of danger. The older man looked away and continued to walk with the other two.

Naruto let out a shaken breath, knowing he was still hidden—

"You can come out now." The older man announced, staring right into the brush. The fox's heart dropped as his breath hitched. 

"Huh? Kakashi-sensei? Who are you talking to?" The girl inquired as she followed the older man's line of sight. The silent boy looked over as well. Naruto’s heart quickened, as she stilled once again, he thought of all the possibilities that could happen. How did that man even sense him? 

Naruto hesitantly stepped out into the clearing, he watched as all their faces formed into confusion.

"A fox…," The boy started. "With three tails?"

He tilted his head as his tails moved about, he sat in front of them, blocking the path they were walking on. He was a bit nervous, not sure if this was the right decision to be seen.

"Are they supposed to have _three_ tails?" The girl asked rhetorically, staring down at him.

"No, not normal foxes." The older man responded, Naruto noticed he did not drop his guard, the man only stared stoically. He wanted to help them leave immediately, though he had a gazillion questions for them, he had to make them leave before his sister came back, whenever that was.

But he also did not want to weird them out by suddenly talking. He stood up and walked away from them a bit, but they still watched.

"What's—what is it doing?" The brooding boy stared incredulously at him as he trotted in circles and made a yapping sound.

"Maybe, maybe it's trying to help us, we should follow it." The girl determined, Naruto yipped louder, wiggling his tail. The girl smiled, walking forward while the boy looked over to the older man and he just shrugged.

He traversed easily on the terrain and looked back every so often to make sure they were still following him. The older man made him feel weary though—he wondered how he had known he was in the bush. He looked back to see the man staring at him, how unnerving. The yellow fox stopped abruptly, ears pointing up into the tall trees. The three humans paused as well when the fox began to growl.

"Eek! What is that? And why is it so huge!?" The girl shrieked as she stared horrified at the abnormally large centipedes that sprinted down the trees surrounding them. Naruto hated this part of the forest, but there was no way to avoid them if you wanted to exit this forest. The centipede’s nest was one of the many reasons it was called the Dead Forest and he absolutely dreaded dealing with them—they freaked him out. It’s not that he couldn’t kill a few grotesquely huge bugs, but they were just abundantly more than the last time he passed through here. He wondered if he could really deal with all the bugs whilst keeping the humans safe, only to look behind him that they held small weapons. The older silver-haired man acted first, quickly throwing a kunai that directly pierced a centipede to a tree, a small shrill was heard before it quickly went limp. 

“Alright, Sakura, handle all the ones on the left while Sasuke will handle the bugs on the right. Do not let them get to the ground.” The older man instructed as the other two nodded and jumped away. “Hai, sensei!”.

Naruto stared baffled at the work they did, he didn’t expect them to have any type of fighting skill, maybe it was just a few humans that did or possessed that weird-looking headband. He sat and watched as they made quick work of the huge centipedes that overran the area. Naruto decided not to involve himself, and merely watched how they moved, the pinkette, Sakura used shurikens when she ran out of the throwing knives. It would take her a few throws, as she missed their vital spots before it killed the centipede. The boy, Sasuke, was quick with it—only using two per centipede he came across. Naruto looked over to the older man who seemed to be dealing with tons of them at a time, on both sides.

What grabbed his attention was the way that they ran up the trees, if he remembered correctly humans can’t just run up trees. He looked closer at their feet to see a light blue aura surrounding it.  _Chakra_ , he never knew it could be used in that sort of way. His ears twitched, hearing the pinkette grunt as she seemed to be throwing fewer shurikens, though there weren't many centipedes left, a stray one had slithered down passed her—going towards him onto the ground.

"Eek! Watch out!" Sakura cried as she desperately searched for a weapon to deal with the racing centipede. Both Sasuke and the older man had been too occupied to deal with the stray centipede that reached the ground and sprinted towards the fox. Though slightly caught off guard—he really wasn't letting a bug touch him today.  The fox swiftly took a stance as his mouth went wide and a small fireball appeared, the fireball grew in size as the centipede drew closer. Just mere meters away, Naruto released the ball and shot it right at the bug, causing a small explosion and the centipede to instantly wriggle and burn away. The older man landed just after, a kunai in hand, as if he were ready to kill it. With that, it seemed to be the last of it that decided to come crawling out of its nest, though he was pretty sure they almost eliminated the entire population here.

"Alright, it's definitely not a normal fox." Sakura noted, her mouth agape at the scene that had unfolded. The older man simply nodded."Alright, good job, go get your kunais and shurikens from all of them and we can get going." Sakura groaned while the boy promptly nodded, they both separated once again, to remove all the weapons that stuck a big centipede to a tree.

He wasn’t actually sure if he was supposed to let them know he was more than… an ordinary fox but he really didn’t want to deal with bug guts all over his freshly washed coat. Once the two were done, their hands covered in green residue, Naruto continued to lead them once again, stepping over the dead carcasses that had fallen off the trees. He led them out of the forest as a flat plateau was ahead, if he focused hard enough, he could see a dirt path leading off into the distance.

“Freedom! Finally, I can’t wait to get home and wash this disgusting bug goo off of me.” Sakura exasperated, flicking her fingers. The fox yipped at her words, tails wagging. 

“So the fox did help us.” The boy spoke this time, looking out into the distance, squinting. The older man simply nodded and moved forward. “Alright, let’s start going, we need to report to Lady Tsunade about our mission.” The silver-haired man proclaimed, walking ahead, the other two followed suit. Naruto sat just before the treeline ended, watching them go forward, a little disappointed, there was more he wanted to find out. Though none of them turned back, Naruto watched until he could no longer make out their figures in the distance before he hopped back into the bushes.

Maybe he could catch another deer before the sunset. 

* * *

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Hello, thank you for reading my first chapter. This is the latest version of a fanfic of the same name, posted on Wattpad. I had always loved the idea but the original plot was outdated, thus I had created the latest version here on AO3, if you would like to read the original it is linked below, beware though as it started back in 2015. This version will NOT follow the original plot, but the idea is similar, I will continue both versions. Thank you again.
> 
> Link:   
> https://www.wattpad.com/story/46214204-tails-and-ears-temp-hiatus


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